A dowel pin is frequently used to align two abutting members. The alignment of the two abutting members is established by the geometric accuracy of the bores in which the dowel is inserted. The tight tolerance required to assure this accuracy is costly to manufacture and difficult to repeatably attain between component parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,613 discloses a device for connecting two members through bores therein without requiring true alignment of the bores. A cup-shaped bushing with a frusto-conical interior surface is engaged with the frusto-conical outer surface of an elongate pin. Both the pin and the bushing include a bore for receipt of a fastener. The frusto-conical surface of the pin and/or the bushing is eccentric with respect to the longitudinal axis of the element on which the surface is formed. Rotation of the bushing within a bore of one of the members will allow the bushing to assume a position by virtue of the eccentricity of the frusto-conical surface of the bushing and/or pin that will compensate for an offset due to the misalignment of the bores. As the pin is drawn into the bushing by a fastener, the wall of the bushing is expanded to tightly engage the bushing against the bore of the member. The other end of the pin is cylindrical and slidably engages the bore of the second member, thereby restraining relative motion of the two members.
The device described above has the disadvantages of being costly to manufacture and difficult to align. The compound eccentrics must be aligned to compensate for the misalignment between adjacent members. If the eccentrics are misaligned the fastener and the component parts are placed in a bind and adjacent members are not aligned properly.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.